Prologue: Origins

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey listens to the conversation, responding when Alice asks who will keep the device. "I can, if that's okay with everyone. I'll hide it in my closet...speaking of which, I've got a few outfits that I can give to Torrence and Christina, no need to buy new stuff. And if any of the guys need bike shorts or something like that, I can root through my brother's closet before he gets back from school for you guys." She holds out her hand, waiting for the device and nodding when Reece asks his question. "And more importantly than his question. What are we going to do to find this girl?"

[Breekan1]

"Bike shorts would be awesome if you've got them," Reece agrees. "If this girl's still in town, she might be in the phonebook. We could try infiltrating her house to see if there are more clues there."

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey nods, and gets up. She leaves her room and goes into her brother's room, rummaging through his dresser looking for bike shorts. She also stops in the hallway, grabbing a phone book from the small table that houses a telephone. She returns to her room carrying two pairs of shorts and a phone book.. She tosses one set of shorts and the phonebook to Reece, and then sets the other pair on her desk.

She enters her closet, and can be heard rummaging around. She emerges, with three sets of clothes. "I think we're all about the same size, ladies. Pick what you'd like."  She holds out three black tank tops, two pairs of black bike shorts, and a pair of purple bike shorts. She waits for the girls to grab what the want before sitting down.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas sighed, or at least he sighed to himself...he was pretty freaked out at the thought of being there alone and Jas wasn't really a hero-type.  Of course if they knew what they were looking for, they could trap and hold any animals in the area.  <Fine, Sam...but after this, you...me....bar.  Non-negotiable.>  Jas slithered closer after giving one last look to the ship that was touching down.  He slithered onto his clothing and coiled up, biting down on the nub of his belt sticking out of the top of the pile to keep himself in place.

<Go, keep low....this could turn out bad, let's make it turn out good.  I hear they don't have beer in heaven...assuming that's where I'm headed.>

[Breekan1]

"Best hostess ever?" Reece asks. "Distinctly possible. At the very least, you're not ass-deep in freaky-advanced technology." Reece excuses himself to the restroom to put the shorts on underneath his clothes. When he returns, he picks the phonebook back up and begins to search it for information.

[Myitt]

"Right," Sam whispers, nodding at Alec, holding Jethsa in one hand and Jas' clothes with snake-Jas under the other arm.  "Let's get the hell out of here."  She makes her way through the forest, stepping quickly but wincing at every crackling leaf under her sneakers.  Luckily she knew this part of the forest wasn't too thick, and moving along this way would eventually bring them back around to a quiet suburban street close to Sam's bus line. 

But behind them, terribly close by, the alien spaceship had already landed.  Sam was no distance runner, especially in the dark forest, with her hands full and Jas' gun clanking against her stomach.  She'd never fired a gun before, and just having one constantly hitting her was unnerving.

[Seryna]

Torrence:

"Thanks." Torrence replied, making no move to get them now. After all, she was wearing clothing.
"So we're going to find this Sam girl, shouldn't we get on it?  Where's the phone book?"

Christina:
Hurriedly grabbing the clothes and excusing herself, she dressed in the bathroom. With a start, she realized that the window had been open while she changed.  Self conscious, she drifted oer to the window to close the drapes.

GM:

In the wooded area some distance away, Christina saw something large moving among the trees. A plane?  No, smaller. Quieter, too. She lost it in a clump of tree tops, but remained at the window, awaiting its reappearance.  Suddenly it arose from the trees- in its awful bug like shape.  She'd never seen anything like it...

Chistina:

"Guys!" She shouted. "Come look at this. There's a weird ****roach ship."

She started. "It's heading this way!"



GM:  

The Bug fighter that Jethsa described hovered above the ground as the four hurried away.  Slowly, it began to descend- let never made contact with the ground.  Instead it rose again in the air, moving in the same direction as Jas, Jethsa, Alec and Sam.  It soon was a mere twenty feet behind them, thirty feet in the air.

Jethsa:

The alien writhed in Sam's hands, the caterpillar leaping to freedom and falling to the ground.
<I believe I have determined why they are here- the residual readings from my ship.  I must return to it and conceal its presence.You three must hurry away, hopefully I can distract them.  Go now!>


Alec:

The black haired man tightened his grip on the blanket concealing the Escafil as he stepped underneath a tree, hoping its branches concealed him from the ship drawing closer.

"Don't do anything stupid, girl." He states, before complying and hurrying away while clutching the blanket and its precious contents to his chest.

Jethsa suddenly began to grow larger- resuming her blue form.  However, she never had had such a magnificent bladed tail before- unless that what had been under the blanket!

<Sam, get the scanner I gave you.>  Jethsa reached over and pressed a series of buttons. <This will cancel out the alien technology readings for a bit. There's some residual readings from... I don't understand, but there's two readings to the north.  Hurry there before it fades!

If  I can't meet up with you tonight, I'll be at the Pier at 10 tomorrow morning.>


The blue alien suddenly broke into a run, darting between the trees.  The Bug Fighter quickly veered off in pursuit.

[Myitt]

Sam yelps as Jethsa writhes out of her hand and begins to morph back into her natural Andalite form.  She quickly covers her mouth with her free hand, glancing back.  The alien ship hadn't landed...it was rising again!  "Hang on, Jethsa, I'll get the scanner," she says, fumbling for the black device in her pocket and nearly losing her car keys in the process.  She glares at Alec in the semidarkness, not sure if he was addressing her or Jethsa.  She lets Jethsa, now fully Andalite, manipulate the device. 

"I'll make my way toward my apartment, if you can find me.  Jas will be there.  If not, we'll see you at the Pier.  Be careful, Jethsa, please," says Sam, hurrying off after Alec with Jas and Jas' clothes still under her arm.  She peers down at the blinking scanner device, hoping it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.  Buying them some time. 

The forest stretches on endlessly as she makes her way through the root branches and hanging leaves.

[Seryna]

The Scanner beeps, informing Sam that she's heading the wrong way.  It wants her to tun left, towards a small housing complex in the distance.

[Myitt]

"North," Sam whispers, following the scanner's readings toward the edge of the woods.  In a few minutes she finally reaches the beginning of suburbia, spotting a small housing complex.  The scanner flashes more frequently, and Sam nods.  "This has got to be it.  Hang on tight, Jas."  She blows a strand of blonde hair out of her sweaty face, not even daring to look back and see if the spaceship is still following them.  Sam walks along the pavement until the sidewalk begins, only stopping to tuck the gun holster under her shirt--it was a little obvious swinging a weapon around her shoulder in the middle of a quiet neighborhood street at night. 

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey drops the clothes on a heap in the floor, and darts into the bathroom. She stares out the window, standing next to Chrisina. Her face blanches as her eyes lock onto the ship. "Holy sh**, what is that?"

[Breekan1]

"A ship? A space-ship?" Reece asks as he makes his way to the window. He sees the thing stretch through the sky. "Holy farts," he exhales. He ducks down behind the curtain. He takes several deep breaths before snapping his gaze up to the girls.

"I'm going to go Oxpecker and follow it. That should be non-exotic enough not to draw too much attention. If it goes farther than I can fly in that form, I'll take it as a sign to head back." His features begin to twist and reshape.

[Seryna]

Christina

"Not alone, you're not. "  Christina insists, studying the space? ship. "I'll come with you.  I'll go as a fox, it's common enough.  It is called the common gray fox. You scope out the sky, I'll watch you from the ground."

Her skin erupted with gray fur as she began to shrink, kicking off her shoes. Her mouth and nose suddenly melted together, only to erupt outwards in a muzzle.  The blonde hair began to darken even as it schooolped back into her scalp, which was becoming definitely more fox like.


Torrence

"Oh geeez," Torrence breathed, watching the ship. "Be careful, you guys."

She turned to Kasey, confused. " What's it doing out here?"




The scanner in Sam's hand suddenly chirped, revealing two much stronger signals in the same direction as she was walking.  The beeping rose in frequency, a near constant hum.

As she walked, she was close enough now to see the details of the first few houses, such as lawns and windows.

As the four watched the ship, they became aware of a young woman heading their direction from the same Forrest that the ship was.  At this distance, they couldn't tell much besides the fact that she was white with dark hair, and seemed to be carrying a few things.

The ship suddenly put on speed and darted away, heading south.

[Myitt]

Sam headed in the direction of the stronger signals, hoping that the chirping alien device in her hands was leading her to help, not to an enemy.

[Breekan1]

<Right! Buddy system! Good thinking Christina!> Reece finishes his morph and hops up onto the toilet. <Could someone with hands get the window? We've got a flight to catch.>